


It's a Long, Long Road From Which There Is No Return

by bettername2come



Series: Long Distance Phone Calls to Central City [17]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Original Team Arrow, Post 8x01, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 15:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21101465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettername2come/pseuds/bettername2come
Summary: Diggle's conversation with Felicity before following after Oliver





	It's a Long, Long Road From Which There Is No Return

**Author's Note:**

> You know what happens when Team Arrow references an offscreen conversation with Cisco.

Felicity’s voice was barely understandable when she called Diggle. Between her sobs and Mia’s the only word he could make out clearly was “Oliver.” The name and tone were enough to set Diggle’s heart racing.

“Felicity, what happened to Oliver?” he asked, calmness and strength he didn’t really feel infusing his voice.

He heard Felicity taking a few deep breaths, which seemed to calm her and the screaming infant, if only a little. “Oliver. He went with someone – The Monitor the other Barry warned us about. Something about Oliver dying and the end of the friggin’ universe.”

“All right, Felicity, breathe,” John said. “I’m on my way to the safe house. I’ll be there in a couple of hours and we’ll figure out what to do. We’ll fix this.”

“You did hear me say ‘end of the friggin’ universe,’ right?”

Diggle smiled in spite of himself. “Yeah, well we’ve saved the world before. This can’t be much harder.”

“I hope you’re right. Hurry, John.”

The trip that should’ve been two hours was closer to an hour. Felicity met him at the door, thrusting the tiny infant into his arms. “Mia, this is your Uncle Dig,” Felicity said hurriedly, pressing a quick kiss to Mia’s forehead. “He’s gonna hold you while I check on something.” She walked out of the room and a second later Digg heard the familiar click of her fingers on the keyboard.

Mia fixed her baby blue gaze on him, sizing him up in a way that immediately reminded Diggle of her father before she deemed him trustworthy and leaned her head against his chest. Not exactly how Diggle had imagined meeting Oliver and Felicity’s daughter. “She’s beautiful, Felicity.”

Felicity smiled as she typed. “Yes, she is. And she’s just learned to roll over, so it won’t be long until she finds her way into trouble just like her dad.” The computer screen lit up: NO MATCHES FOUND “Damn it!”

Diggle followed her into her office. “We’ll find him, Felicity.”

She shook her head. “I’m not so sure of that. I’ve run every kind of tracking algorithm I can think of, traced every kind of energy signal even remotely similar to The Monitor’s and still, nothing. It’s like he’s disappeared off the face of the earth.” A sudden spark lit her eyes. “Oh my God, of course he has. There’s more than one. The Monitor was testing different earths. He must’ve taken Oliver to a different one.” She let out a deep sigh. “And I can’t track those.”

“We know someone who can,” Diggle reminded her.

Felicity didn’t hesitate before pulling out her phone and dialing Cisco’s number and putting him on speakerphone.

Cisco answered on the first ring. “If this is another crisis, I’m sorry, we’ve reached our quota for the season. Maybe try back in three to five months.”

“Cisco.”

“Crap, there’s actually a crisis, isn’t there? I was kidding. Summer’s usually – doesn’t matter. What do you need?”

“We need to find Oliver,” Diggle said. “It’s complicated. He went to another earth with The Monitor.”

“Freaky forehead from my vibe?”

“Yeah,” Felicity said. “Uh, do you think you could vibe their location and help us bring Oliver back?”

Cisco closed his eyes. He knew he was going to come to regret that decision. “Actually, I can’t.”

That wasn’t the answer Felicity had been expecting. “What do you mean you can’t? Why not?”

“My powers. I, uh, I don’t have them anymore.”

“What?”

“It’s a long story, but the key takeaway is: Cisco Ramon, regular human.” He sighed. “I’m sorry. I can’t track Oliver.”

Felicity was silent for a long moment as all the plans she’d been trying to make fell apart. Oliver was gone. She wouldn’t be able to find him. And he was going to die. She had to stop it. But she couldn’t.

Just as Felicity was about to send herself into a downward spiral that would’ve had her sobbing on the floor (again), Cisco’s voice piped up. “I might be able to help. Just tell me where you guys are, and I’ll be right there.”

Diggle waited for Felicity’s nod of approval before giving Cisco the safe house address. A moment later, a familiar blue portal opened up in the living room and Cisco hopped out, a small circular device. “I can’t track people to other worlds, but I can help you get to them.” Cisco noticed the unexpected person in the room and lost focus. “Oh, hey. Who’s this little cutie?” he asked, making faces at Mia that made her giggle.

The question froze Felicity, but Diggle took over smoothly. “This is my niece, Mia. Lyla’s sister’s kid. We were watching her when Felicity called me. Hard to get a sitter.”

Cisco nodded slowly, giving the barest hint that he didn’t quite buy that story, but he didn’t push the issue. He turned his attention back to the extrapolator. “It’s just like the one I gave Kara. Tune it to the world you want, push the button. It’s pretty simple.”

Felicity reached out and hugged Cisco, surprising him. “Thank you.”

“Of course, it’s what we do.” He pulled back. “You might have to give it a few tries before you find the right earth. Probably not Earth-38. I think Kara would’ve called us if Oliver just showed up. Let us know when you bring him back?”

“We will,” Diggle said.

Cisco gave the tiniest hint of a salute before pulling out a second device and reopening the breach back to Central City, startling baby Mia as he jumped back through in the most intense version of peekaboo she’d ever seen.

Diggle passed the baby back to her mother, taking the device from Felicity’s hand. “So, we have a starting point.”

“Yeah, as long as don’t mind searching for an arrow in a multiverse full of haystacks.”

“We’ve always brought him back before, Felicity. No matter what. I won’t let this time be any different.”

Felicity reached her free hand to wrap around Diggle’s shoulder and planted a quick kiss on his cheek as he returned her embrace. “Thank you, John.”

“It’s what family does.”


End file.
